The present invention generally relates to a system and method that is useful in the measurement of the pressure within the human body abdominal cavity. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and system useful with a patient being fed through a naso-enteric feeding tube to determine the intra-abdominal pressure of the patient.
The measurement of intra-abdominal (or intra-visceral) pressure is routinely made in the clinical management of critically ill patients, or patients undergoing major surgery. Typically, the urinary bladder is the preferred site for the pressure measurement, but other hollow organs, such as the stomach or small intestines, may be used as well.
As an example, the Skovlund U.S. Pat. No. 6,503,208 discloses a method and apparatus that returns a volume of collected urine from the patient back to the patient's bladder to determine the intra-abdominal pressure for the patient. The system includes a tube having a series of markings that allows a clinician to obtain a manual measurement of the intra-abdominal pressure of the patient. Although the method and system of the '208 patent provides an accurate measurement of the intra-abdominal pressure for the patient, the system requires a manual measurement to be taken by an attending clinician. Further, once the measurement has been taken, the measurement must be manually entered into an electronic database or monitoring system. Thus, a need exists for a system for monitoring the intra-abdominal pressure of a patient and displaying the sensed pressure on an automated basis.
Many critically ill patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) receive enteral feeding from a naso-enteric feeding tube placed through the patient's nose and into the stomach or small intestine. Outside of the patient, the feeding tube is connected to a container of liquid feed solution by means of a disposable feeding set. The feeding set typically extends between the feeding tube and the liquid feed container through a roller pump that is operable to manage the rate of supply of the feeding solution to the patient.
Early enteral feeding of intensive care patients is accepted as the best way to make sure that the intensive care patient is not starving, as well as for normalizing the patient's digestive functions. Since a high proportion of these patients have intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH), it is desirable to monitor these patients' IAP continuously, on a patient monitor.